Rachel's 11th Birthday

My sweet Rachel had her 11th birthday on November 19th. We had a family celebration that day, then a sleepover with a few of her best friends on the weekend.

Rachel has grown into such an amazing young lady. She loves Dallas Cowboy football, the color blue, drawing, singing, stuffed animals, and playing the violin. She is a total animal lover, who spends much of her time studying dog, horse or wildlife books.

Here are a few of the many things I see in Rachel that make me so proud of her:

• She is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
• She genuinely loves people, cares for them, and wants the best for them.
• She is a terrific student, and loves to learn.

God has great plans for you, Rachel. I love watching you grow to be more like Him every day. I love you!

Soccer Season

Rachel had her first game today. This girl is fast! She was all over the field.

School Days

Today is the first day of school. Today is also the first day of a new stage of life for me. I have a 7th grader, a 5th grader, and a kindergartner this year. The girls are all in school now, and I am home without any kids during school days for the first time in over 12 years. It's been a great day so far. The girls were ready for school and I was, too.

So, what am I going to do now? I have plenty of things on my to do list that will keep me busy, lots of projects and things to catch up on. But, those can wait. Today I'm just going shopping. Alone. It will be strange not having my shopping buddy with me. But, it should take a lot less time.

Wax Museum

The 4th graders at Rachel's school researched and wrote a paper on the life of a historical figure. Today they dressed up as the character that they studied, and students, teachers and parents visited their wax museum. We walked around and listened as the characters came to life and shared their stories.

Rachel as Sacagewea with baby Pomp

Rachel with her best friend Caitlyn (Betsy Ross)

Concert

Rachel joined the school chorus and began playing the violin this year. Last night she sang and played in her first concert. She was great!

BreakAway Boot Camp

Rachel had a blast at her first over night church event this weekend. She rode the giant swing at RVR and told us, "It was terrifying and I loved it!"

Thanks Jen and the BA team for putting together such a great event.

Art

Rachel's quilling project was chosen to be on display at the Carroll Arts Center for youth art month. We attended the reception for the participants last week. Here she is with her artwork.

Party Time

Birthday parties are great fun. They are also a lot of work and super expensive. When we made the move to Maryland 4 years ago, instead of having big parties every year for the girls, we decided to begin having birthday parties for them every other year. On the non-party birthdays we still do special things with our family and sometimes a few close friends. We still make a really big deal out of celebrating the special day.

I am loving the every other year party thing. And, I must give some credit to my friend Suzie. She does parties for her 6 kids every other year, too. And talking to her helped me decide to make this change. I mean, come on, there is great pressure to have a big blowout every year. I am glad to have freed myself up from this. I think my kids still have a chance at becoming normal, well adjusted adults someday even though they only had birthday parties every other year.

Well, this year Rachel's birthday was Thanksgiving week. It was her 10th, double digits, a big deal. So, we celebrated her all day (really all week) long. It was also a party year for her. Here are a few photos from the big day that I am finally getting around to posting.

Rachel's 10th Birthday

Here are some photos from our day. I will write more later, just want to get these pictures up for grandparents to see tonight.

Happy Halloween

Halloween night was fun in our neighborhood again this year. Hannah and Rachel came home with unbelievable amounts of candy as usual. They have a tradition of trick or treating every house in the neighborhood, so we did. Chloe went out with us for a while, but really had more fun at the house with Lance giving out candy.

Fall Fun

We are enjoying the fall and all the activities that come with it.

We spent Sunday afternoon at Baugher's. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, enjoyed some Baugher's apple cider, and spent some time with the farm animals in the petting zoo. Next we went to Hoffman's for a treat. I tried their pumpkin ice cream and it was great.

We also went to the fall fest at Rachel's elementary school last week.

Soccer

Rachel had her first game today. They won 2 - 1. Go Revolution!

Back to School

The first week of school has been a crazy one this year. All three of my girls have had a virus that causes fever, soar throat, and headaches. At least it only lasts for a couple of days. Rachel missed the first day of school and Hannah came home sick Tuesday and missed school yesterday. Today they're all well.

This is the first year we have had kids at 2 different schools with 2 different schedules. We are getting used to this.

The first week of middle school is going well for Hannah. She is meeting new friends and is excited about her classes. Rachel loves school and is doing terrific, too.

We've been to the back to school/meet the teacher nights, and the school year is now in full swing.

HSM 2

All summer my girls have been counting down the days until High School Musical 2 airs on the Disney Channel. Only 5 more days!

Big Yellow Bus

Lance accompanied Rach on her latest field trip to the DC Zoo. Every big school trip I've been on here with the girls has been on a chartered bus. Not this one. When is the last time you rode a school bus?

The famous baby panda. He'll be two years old next month.

More Crabs

We upgraded to a bigger "Crabitat" and returned the two dead hermits for live ones. So far, so good. We've had Fuchsia and Trusty, the new crabs, for two weeks now. And, Hannah's crab, Shelly, has been with us for about a month. They seem to be doing well.

Field Trip Fun

The countdown until the last day of school is on at my house. 24 more days, and three of those are half days. Hannah and Rachel are crossing off each day on their calendars and, as always, looking forward to summer. Chloe and I are looking forward to it too. We miss those two when they're at school, and can't wait for the break when we will be spending the summer days together.

Hannah's class visited the middle school last week. The first thing she told me about her visit there was that it had "really low ceilings." It was funny that she noticed this, because Lance said he recently read about a study that concluded that people are not as creative in buildings with low ceilings. She is one very creative kid, so maybe this won't effect her all that much! Hannah also toured Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, and ate lunch in the Inner Harbor on a 5th grade trip this week. Rachel went with the 3rd grade to Goucher College to see a production of Ramona Quimby. Her next school trip will be to the zoo in DC.

I went hiking on the NCR Trail last Saturday morning with some friends. It was a great day to be out in a beautiful area. We hiked over 6 miles. It was so much fun to enjoy incredible scenery and weather and hang out with some great ladies. I'm looking forward to our next outing.

Those are a few recent happenings. What a busy time of year. Our calendar is full until school is out and summer begins, then we'll relax.

My Girls

They are the greatest. I love how well they play together and look out for each other. I found them hanging out on the hammock last night.

Crabs

Our girls have wanted hermit crabs for a while now. They are continually checking out the book Keeping Unusual Pets: Hermit Crabs from the library. They've read it so many times that they pretty much have it memorized. Saturday was the day. We went to PetsMart and invested in the crabitat, food, snacks, and other accessories. Then the girls picked out their crabs and named them - Shelly, Sunset, and Sasha.

We came home and got everything set up and were ready to let the crabs check out their new home. When moving them from the PetsMart container to the crabitat, Sasha (Chloe's crab) lost a leg. I don't think this is supposed to be life threatening for a crab, but Sasha didn't make it. Sunset (Rachel's) began waning today, and I think he/she (?) is gone too. Shelly (Hannah's crab) is looking good though. So, we're 1 for 3.

Easter

Easter was cold here this year. We had a few snow showers and flurries Saturday and Sunday. We were busy with three Sunday morning services at 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00. The student ministry had a special Easter service at 9:30 and again at 11:00. After a great morning at church we ate lunch and spent the afternoon with friends.